The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, stated that the Jilli Market in Borno State has long been identified as a restricted area used by insurgents and their collaborators for logistical support.

The minister stated this on Tuesday during an interview on Arise News while addressing the airstrike that led to the death of over 200 civilians.

He dismissed claims that some individuals in the market were innocent, insisting that they were all involved with the bandits

Musa said, “That area had been banned for a very long time because the den where they use to meet normally with people that supply them with fertilizer for IEDs, they give them food, fuel, and all these issues, and normally they operate at a very short time and disappear. Unfortunately for them, then that day we were able to see them and were able to take a strike. And you know, it’s really disturbing when you hear how people want to change the narrative to make it look as if they were just innocent people. Nobody in that area was innocent, none of them. And I can attest to you that if any of them is innocent, they would have said it.”

Stressing that the military had repeatedly warned civilians to stay away from the location because of its links to insurgent activities, the Defence Minister noted that the high profits from trading in the area continued to attract people despite the security risks.

“They knew why they were there. They were making “big business,” I tell you. If you take a bag of rice in that area, you sell it for about 150,000. The money is much, so the attraction is so much. People buy fuel, take a full tank, go there, empty it, and sell to them, and they make so much money. So the attraction is for them to make business, and that’s what keeps them going. That’s what we’ve warned, and these are areas we’ve told them: there’s nobody there. What are you doing there? What kind of business? Who are you doing business with? Those are the answers they should tell,” Gen. Musa insisted.